Promises
and Illusions: A Commencement Address to the SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome,
New York

AbstractOn May 13, 1995, Herbert Rosedale addressed the graduating class of the State
University of New York's Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome. The address cautions
students against getting so caught up in and thrown off balance by the modern world's
frenetic pace and seemingly glittering opportunities that they become vulnerable to
hucksters' promises of complete security or absolute certainty. The address discusses the
deceptive, manipulative ways in which cultic
groups lure the unsuspecting; presents historical and contemporary examples
of otherwise decent people being manipulated into performing evil acts; and offers certain
principles that graduates might keep in mind in order to avoid the "adoption of a
narrow perspective that refuses to see beyond boundaries dictated by another."